'Wedding Band': Last Season's Best New Comedy Comes to DVD

Turn the music back up! Wedding Band - the best comedy of this past TV season and perhaps one of the best all-time - is now rocking on DVD, thanks to Fox Home Entertainment. Wedding Band: The Complete Series arrived earlier this month.

It's hard to figure out where to start with Wedding Band, because there's so much about it that just works, as a TV show, as music, and as a viewing experience. As a series, it's legitimately funny. Co-creators Josh Lobis and Darin Moiselle hit the comedy sweet spot: it's humor, aimed at adults without having to be crude, that develops naturally instead of the boring old setup-punchline. (It helps that this is an hour show.)

It's mind-blowing how good the cast is, stocked with names that should be bigger and that you'd never put in the same sentence together, but who all hit the thing out of the park. This should finally get people to stop stereotyping Brian Austin Green from 90210, appreciate Peter Cambor more, and if Harold Perrineau doesn't win an award for something it's a crime against entertainment.

What really takes this show from great to particularly memorable is the other ways in which it sticks with you. This isn't just a show about people who happen to be in a band; this is a show about a really damn good band, and for that we can thank Adam Schlesinger (of Fountains of Wayne fame), a crack music team, and a cast who threw themselves into learning how to play all sorts of instruments.

The covers in Wedding Band, which range from LMFAO to Air Supply, are better than a lot of the so-called "real music" out there these days. And past the music, past the laughs, this is a series that has a remarkable heart. Filled with characters you'll recognize, never cruel, more than a little bit optimistic, it's a show that just makes you a little bit more happy about life.

The DVD isn't quite a number-one hit, though. While the actual transfer of the episodes is great both picture and sound-wise, Fox has given us about what you'd expect for a DVD release of a cancelled series. But the special features could use some tuning. "WeddingBand Jukebox" sounds cool, but it's really just a menu that allows you to skip directly to the songs in each episode.

The two featurettes, "Finding the Rhythm" and "Wedding Themes," are both made of the straightforward stuff that every TV on DVD set has. The kicker is that this cast is so funny, and so clearly enjoying themselves, that watching them talk just makes you wish Fox had lined them up for some commentary tracks, or thrown in some gag reels, anything to really let them loose. It's a big, big missed opportunity.

Despite that, this set is still a must-buy, if only for the hours of laughs you're going to get out of a show that left us far too soon.

If you've ever become jaded about TV comedies, or if you love music, or just want to laugh at something that everyone can enjoy, Wedding Band has to be at the top of your playlist.

You can order your copy of Wedding Band: The Complete Series on DVD by clicking here.